Lawsuit May Force ExU.S.C. Star to Talk

New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush has faced continual accusations since April 2006 that he and his family took as much as 0,000 in cash and goods while he attended the University of Southern California.

Reggie Bush left college early and was drafted by the Saints. He and his family have refused to cooperate in the investigation.

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If he is found to have broken rules, the former Southern California star Reggie Bush could lose the Heisman Trophy he won in 2005.

Since then, Bush and his family have refused to cooperate with investigators for the N.C.A.A. and the Pacific-10 Conference, who are looking into whether he or university officials violated rules governing student-athletes. Bush has said little beyond denying any wrongdoing.

This month, however, Bush may be forced to break his silence. A lawyer for his chief accuser, Lloyd Lake, said he issued a subpoena to compel Bush to give a deposition Feb. 25 in a lawsuit filed in San Diego last October. Lake contends that the Bush family accepted cash, a car, rent-free housing and other goods from him, and he is seeking repayment.

However, Bush’s lawyer, William David Cornwell Sr., said Saturday that Bush has not been served. Cornwell also said that Lake has refused to produce several documents that will be needed at Lake’s deposition on Tuesday.

Lake, who attended the same high school as Bush, planned to start a sports marketing company with Bush as its founding client. The company failed, Lake said, because Bush hired a different marketing agent in 2006 when he decided to leave Southern California a year early to enter the N.F.L. draft.

Lake’s lawyer, Brian Watkins, said he planned to turn over the transcript of Bush’s testimony to the N.C.A.A. If he does, it is unclear what will come of the N.C.A.A.’s inquiry.

If Bush, 22, is found to have broken the rules, he could lose his 2005 Heisman Trophy, but most likely would not face other punishment because he is no longer a student. The Heisman Foundation requires winners to have complied with N.C.A.A. rules.

If investigators conclude that university officials knew about the activities or ignored warning signs, Southern California may be forced to forfeit games, return championship money or lose scholarships, or be banned from postseason play.

“There’s a lot more at stake for U.S.C.,” said Gabe Feldman, director of the sports law program at Tulane. “And that’s often the criticism of these N.C.A.A. investigations, that the people who really committed the act of wrongdoing aren’t the ones being punished.”

Officials with the N.C.A.A., the Pac-10 and the university declined to comment. Bush, his mother and his stepfather issued a statement last month through their lawyer, Cornwell, saying the accusations amount to extortion.

“Lake’s present conduct is consistent with his prior threats against Reggie Bush and his family,” the statement read. “In April 2006, after we rejected his demand for .2 million, Lake’s attorney threatened to make public accusations,” whether or not the evidence was admissible in court.

Lake, 34, is an admitted former gang member with a criminal history that includes selling drugs and assaulting women. He said last month that he had provided thousands of dollars in shopping sprees and ,000 to pay off the debts of Bush’s stepfather, LaMar Griffin, and his mother, Denise Griffin. Lake said he gave Bush ,000 in cash to buy a car and paid for airline tickets for the Griffins to attend games in Hawaii and elsewhere.

Lake’s business partner, Michael Michaels, a development officer with the Sycuan Indian tribe in San Diego, also paid some of the family’s expenses, Lake has said. Yahoo published documents last year showing Michaels’s name on the deed of a house near San Diego in which the Griffins reportedly lived for several months, and also showing that Bush had stayed in a Las Vegas hotel using Michaels’s credit card.

Bush and Michaels reached a confidential settlement last year for 0,000 to 0,000, according to news accounts. Michaels declined to comment through his lawyer, Jordan Cohen, although he had previously confirmed some of Lake’s account.

Lake said he decided to speak to N.C.A.A. investigators after attempts to get the Bush family to repay him failed.

“Reggie cheated, there’s no doubt about that,” Lake said in a telephone interview from San Diego. “I didn’t want anything to do with this. I just wanted my money back.”